The IPCC also confirmed 90 pocket notebooks - never seen by investigators before - have been handed to them over the last month

Nineteen more police officers statements on the Hillsborough disaster allegedly doctored by their superiors have been uncovered, the police watchdog revealed today.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission found FANS’ statements may have also been altered after reviewing new evidence.

It brings the total number of police accounts suspected to be illegally amended to 238 as the scale of top-level wrongdoing surrounding the 1989 football disaster continues to escalate.

The IPCC also confirmed 90 pocket notebooks - never seen by investigators before - have been handed to them over the last month.

The pocket-books passed to the IPCC by serving or retired South Yorkshire Police officers could contain crucial new evidence if juniors ignored orders not to record their experiences immediately after the stadium tragedy, a departure from the usual method of police protocol.

The watchdog also explained they had recently discovered that fans’ accounts of the infamous FA Cup semi-final may have been altered.

It comes as relatives of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in Sheffield 24 years ago expressed their ‘dismay’ over the lack of ‘progress and scrutiny’ of the investigations.

Families are angry senior officers embroiled in the Hillsborough tragedy have inexplicably avoided any criminal interviews since last year’s explosive report into the disaster was released a year ago tomorrow..

Campaigners marked the anniversary of last September’s damning independent dossier to ask why top cops including Sir Norman Bettison and match commander David Duckenfield had so far avoided formal questioning following the exposure of a cover-up and widespread failings.

Barry Devonside, 65, who lost his 18-year-old son Christopher at Hillsborough, told the Mirror: “For no officer to be interviewed under caution, or possibly even arrested or charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice by now, is not right.

“Mr Duckenfield has never been spoken to, as far as we know. Something is very very wrong.”

Sheila Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign that represents 21 of the 96 families, added: “Not only were police officers’ accounts changed, but now we learn those of fans’ as well.

“It’s shocking. Every single officer involved in a potential cover-up should have been spoken to by now.”

Families also slammed a recent apparent U-turn from the Director of Public Prosecutions, who in July wrote to families to inform them a ‘challenge panel’ to independently scrutinise the probes currently being carried out by the police and IPCC had been shelved.

Mrs Coleman added: “Surely after so many years of cover-up and corruption it is not too much for families to expect independent scrutiny of the police and IPCC investigations.

“Without rigorous scrutiny, the Hillsborough Justice Campaign will have no faith in the investigations of the DPP or IPCC.”

Danny Gordon, brother of tireless campaigner Anne Williams who lost her son Kevin, 15, in the tragedy and died in April from bowel cancer, said: “Why is everything taking so long to organise?

“We are no longer one year on since September’s report, and yet what have these enquiry teams done so far? It’s disgusting.”

Senior legal figures close to the process told the Mirror there was real concern ‘significant players’ in Hillsborough may not be quizzed about any potential wrongdoing until as late as 2015, and after the inquest, scheduled to last up to nine months, has finished.

The source said: “The Hillsborough inquiry is massively funded. Clear references were made to the families there would be prosecutions along the way.

“There is no reason why arrests cannot be made now, or people charged.”

The IPCC told the Mirror their role in building a criminal investigation surrounding Hillsborough was ‘hugely different” to the work of the independent panel last year.

And they explained it was normal practice for more junior officers, whose statements had been changed to be spoken to first before deciding to bring in senior officers in charge at the FA Cup tragedy in a more formal setting, for interview.

Deputy chair Deborah Glass said: “This is an ongoing criminal investigation the like of which has never been seen before in this country.

“Already we are uncovering more about the disaster and its aftermath.

"Hillsborough has had a history of inquiries by the police and others, many completed quickly, coming to flawed conclusions.

“Our investigations need to deliver the last, definitive account.”

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “The coroner has made clear that his independence and that of the investigators working to him must be protected.

“This has required us to reconsider the (challenge} panel’s role as it could not effectively scrutinize the ongoing investigations without potentially interfering with the coroner’s work.

“The DPP has been working hard to try and arrive at an arrangement which satisfies all the families concerned and hopes to be able to progress matters when he meets with the families on Friday.”

In a joint statement to the Mirror, Steve Rotheram, MP for Liverpool Walton and Andy Burnham, shadow Health Secretary and MP for Leigh, said: “Twenty four years on, because of the inadequacy of the original inquest, victims’ family and friends still do not know exactly what happened to their loved-ones, or how they died.

“No-one has been criminally charged despite the overwhelming evidence of gross negligence and cover-up.

“In Liverpool, the truth is widely known. But for the rest of the country, the scale of the police cover-up and depth of deception were never fully understood.

“It is one of the biggest investigations in our country’s history. The Home Secretary must continue to guarantee that there are no impediments to the progress of the investigation.

"Today would be a good day for her to reaffirm that - that nothing will stand in the way of justice for the 96.”